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Archive for the ‘Museums’ Category

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What is a ‘museum’?

In Museums on September 27, 2011 at 11:15 am

What comes to mind when you think of the word ‘museum’? What even are museums?

Chances are you think of particular museum – a specific example of one. Or maybe you just think of display cases. Or of visitors looking at objects. Or do you think of people, talking and sharing stories?

I wonder if we’re ever going to figure out how to define what a museum is. The museum community has been trying to define it for years.

According to Wikipedia a museum is ‘an institution that houses and cares for a collection of artifacts and other objects of scientific, artistic, or historical importance and makes them available for public viewing through exhibits  that may be permanent or temporary.’

The International Council of Museum updates its definition of a museum every so often, the most recent being at the 21st General Conference in Vienna, Austria, in 2007. They say a museum is ‘a non-profit, permanent institution in the service of society and its development, open to the public, which acquires, conserves, researches, communicates and exhibits the tangible and intangible heritage of humanity and its environment for the purposes of education, study and enjoyment.’

That’s only two definitions and there are many, many more out there.

I’ve been pondering a supposition that in fact each person will end up defining what the word ‘museum’ means to them in terms of three things 1) how they perceive museums;  2) what they’re into in general and 3) how they use museums.

Someone who perceives museums as old-fashioned and boring place, isn’t interested in heritage and never visits one is probably going to end up giving a rather negative definition of a museum. While someone who sees museums as places of learning and dialogue, is into cultural history and goes to museums a lot is likely to give a largely positive and enthusiastic definition. These two standpoints are, of course, polar opposites and there are a huge range of positions in between.

I’d be interested in exploring the different responses to those three questions and then trying to find a common ground on what a museum actually is. It’d be a hugely social definition of what a museum is, but it’d be interesting to find out.

Hmmm, there’s another PhD project for ever-growing list ….

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Reel History of Britain

In Museums, new content on September 6, 2011 at 6:10 pm

Melvyn Bragg has a new TV series called Reel History of Britain. It’s a social history documentary, charting the course of the twentieth century through archive film, plus interviews and recollections of key events that have taken place in the last one-hundred years, since the advent of moving film. In each episode Melvyn goes to a different place in the UK and shows people film in a 1950s Ministry of Technology mobile cinema, then gauges their reactions and captures them on film.  It’s airing now on weekdays at 18.30 on BBC TWO. You can watch previous episodes on the BBC iPlayer.

I was asked by the lovely people at BBC Learning to curate a little exhibition that will go on tour while the programme is airing and it’s about to launch this weekend. It’s a part of Hands On History, a programme of live events and online resources linked to television shows that are airing. I’ve previously worked with them on the Turn Back Time show last year and they’ve also run campaigns related to the Normans, Victorians and the Second World War.

The current live events include a chance to sit in a 1950s mobile cinema, an interactive area and a timeline of British social history, curated by me, with some tv screens showing archive film.

The Reel History Live Experience takes place in …

Glasgow – Fri 9 and Sat 10 September
Grimsby – Fri 16 and Sat 17 September
Peterborough – Fri 23 and Sat 24 September
Leicester – Fri 30 September and Sat 1 October

Do let me know if you go along!

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‘Glasgow Guggenheim’ is here

In Museums on June 23, 2011 at 10:12 am

This week the new Riveside Museum in Glasgow has opened its doors to the public. I got to pay the site a visit a few weeks ago when they were in the process of putting the finishing touches to the display. It’s a magnificent building, standing proudly at the edge of the city in an area of redvelopment. It’s a striking, modern space from the new superstar of museum design, Zaha Hadid.

In the past this project has been dubbed the ‘Glasgow Guggenheim‘ due to its architectural similarities with the Bilbao museum. That’s not necessarily true inside, but the flow and curves of the roof here and the striking position on the riveride do certainly draw comparisons between the two buildings.

The glass window to the right of this picture faces out onto the river, while the rest of the building snakes away in a large S-shape, with another huge glazed facade at the ‘front’ of the building. And due to the clever work of the strucutral engineers on this project, there are no supporting columns anywhere in the interior of the space – that amazing roof is entirely self-supporting.

The museum is proud to tell us that they presently have on display twice the number of objects that were on show in the old transport museum – and being inside this space, you can tell. It’s packed with objects from floor to ceiling, although it’s interesting to note that hardly any of the interpretation is against a wall. Event Communciations have masterminded the interpretation and display, allowing objects to tell stories in a variety of ways using installations on pedastals, many of which can be moved out of the way or replaced in the future, alowing for the display to be amended and updated in the future.

I strongly recommend you go see it for yourself.

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A Castle Fit for a King (once again)

In Museum [Insider], Museums, new content on June 2, 2011 at 10:15 am

King John’s Castle in Limerick is preparing to start work on a major redevelopment project.  Built by the nasty King John of England almost 800 years ago, the castle has not been performing quite as well as it could do as a visitor attraction and heritage centre. So Shannon Development – a regional developement agency in south-west Ireland – has received 5.7 million Euro in funding to work on the site, improving the visitor offer and facilities, including reworking the interpretation of the site.

I spoke with the project manager at the castle and wrote the piece up for an article on Museum [Insider]. The site is planned to stay open during the redevelopment work, which is expected to be complete by summer 2012.

 

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Travelling exhibition coming to Manchester

In Museums on May 26, 2011 at 8:45 am

I’ve just finished work on a small travelling exhibition which is going to Manchester city centre this coming weekend – Saturday 28 May. It’s all about archive film.

I curated a small travelling show for BBC Learning about the social history of Britain in the twentieth century, as told through clips of archive footage. It’s all part of a project to film a new TV show for the autumn called Reel History of Britain, hosted by Melvyn Bragg.

In each episode Melvyn travels to a different part of the UK, using a unique mobile cinema to tell the story of a different key aspect of British life. From holidays to housing, school days to the Silver Jubilee, the programme will use the British Film Institute and regional archive collections and real stories to highlight the hardships and simple pleasures of the past.

If you’re in Manchester, make your way to Albert Square between 10.00 and 17.00 to see the exhibition and perhaps even get caught on camera for the series! The part I worked on is the timeline, inside the exhibition truck – do let me know if you see it.

All the details are on the BBC website.

I’ve also written some resources for the BBC Hands on History web pages, which will be available online later in the year. It’s been great fun to learn more about the amazing film archives that exist around the country and to use a few of them for research. Power to the film archive!

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Museum [Insider] Looking Ahead: Handbook of Future Museum and Heritage Projects 2012 to 2017

In Museum [Insider], Museums, new content on May 25, 2011 at 11:20 am

I’m pleased to announce the publication of my new book with Heritage Solution Ltd, the publishers of the online magazine Museum [Insider].

It’s got a snappy title -

Museum [Insider] Looking Ahead: Handbook of Future Museum and Heritage Projects 2012 to 2017 is a look at over 100 projects taking place in the museum, gallery and heritage sector over the next five years. Each entry has a write up detailing what the project entails and what contracts are likely to be offered in the future, along with project data and the all important names and contact details of the key people to speak to.

There are also five introductory articles detailing where I think the museum sector is right now in terms of private business. It’s true that times are tough for the heritage sector right now – jobs are being cut, as are annual budgets. But this book lists the staggering £1.8 billion worth of work that’s out there and gives you the knowhow to go about securing some of it for yourself. It’s the word from inside the museums – the Museum [Insider].

As a market intelligence publication about a specialised industry this isn’t perhaps a book that you’ll buy for the bedside table, but if you’re interested in obtaining a copy, then take a look at the M[I] website.

In the meantime, I want to say a big thank you to the lovely people at Museum [Insider] for publishing a second title with me. Cheers, guys.

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How do you ‘lose’ a museum?

In Museums, what i'm reading on May 24, 2011 at 9:21 am

We are set to see plenty of new museums open this year. But have you ever wondered about museums that don’t exist any more or that have closed down? I went to a conference on Saturday all about ‘lost museums’.

It was presented by the Hunterian Museum, along with the Museums and Galleries History Group (of which I am a recent member) and hosted at the Royal College of Surgeons. There was an emphasis to start with on the history of medical museum. Although collections of specimens in jars used to be very popular, especially in the teaching of anatomy, the Human Tissue Act put an end to many of them and now only a few survive. But they are perhaps on the rise again, given the outstanding quality of displays at the Hunterian.

We also learned about Victorian anatomy shows – plaster and wax models of the body with removable organs – aimed at the general public rather than the medical profession. Again, the 1857 Obscene Publications Act put an end to those and many of the beautiful models were melted down in front of magistrates.

There were papers about Henry Wellcome‘s massive collection of objects (over 1 million when he died in 1936) which took 50 years to sort through and John Ruskin’s lost museum in Sheffield, aimed at inspiring artisans and cratsmen of the city. The museum was disbanded long agao, but has recently been recreated at www.ruskinatwalkley.org , so it’s perhaps not as lost as we think.

Two papers on natural history covered the lost menageries of animals and birds in Regency London and the history of four museums of sconomic botany at Kew Gardens, all of which have now disappeared.

Perhaps the most poignant paper was from Tim Knox, director of Sir John Soane’s Museum, who recounted the collection of medieval art belonging to a contemporary of Soane. The architect Lewis Nockalls Cottingham (what a name!) collected pieces or art and architecture together in his house in Waterloo and opened it up to the public for a fee. Unlike Soane his collection disappeared when, after his death it was sold off by his family – and then the house was demolished in the 20th century to make way for the Festival of Britain.

It’s all a bit sad really – these museums which have been lost forever. But people are still writing and talking about them, so perhaps they aren’t ‘lost’ completey. Their memory lives on in some way.

I was struck by not only the physical void that the ‘loss’ of these museums created, but also the social absence that comes about when a museum closes down. If we celebrate the new Turner Contemporary as a force for good in Margate because it is set to bring about social cohesion in the town, does the closing of a museum remove something from the social fabric of a place? What happened to the visitors who no longer got to see the objects on display have social, intellectual, beautiful experiences?

Hmmmm, I can feel a conference paper of my own coming on …

In the meantime, the exhibition Lost Museums continues at the Hunterian Museum until 2 July.

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Completing Kettle’s Yard

In Museum [Insider], Museums, new content on May 21, 2011 at 7:04 pm

The ‘to do’ list of museums I want to visit has been growing over time, but I’ve just put a new one at the top of the list.

Over the last couple of years I’ve written about dozens of museums and galleries around the country which I’ve not visited in person. If I’m writing an article about a new museum being planned in Scotland there’s actually little point in me going up there to see a building site – in fact it’s much more beneficial to speak with people working on the project on the phone. There are loads of new museums opening this year, but one I really want to go see when it’s done (next year) is Kettle’s Yard in Cambridge.

This charming little property was once home to Jim Ede, a veteran of the art world who would, at one time, welcome students from the local University into his home for a cup of tea and the chance to look at his collection.

The house is now a public building, and has been operating at maximum capacity for some time. After various physical interventions on the site the museum has now realised that it cannot continue to operate efficiently in its present form, so are planning to make some alterations and ‘complete’ the site -  at a cost of £5 million.

I’ll definitely be there next autumn to see what’s happened.

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New museums opening across the country

In Museums on May 18, 2011 at 2:24 pm

I was lucky enough to go to one of the previews of the new Turner Contemporary in Margate a few weeks ago. The David Chipperfield-designed art gallery has been a fair while in the making, but it was well worth the wait. I really hope the TC is going to do what it promises and help to regenerate and revitalise Margate, which is a rather sad sort of a town on the north Kent coast.

This is the just the start of the latest flurry of new museums and galleries opening this spring summer.

The redeveloped Holbourne Museum in Bath will reopen later this month, along with the Hepworth Wakefield, a brand new arts venue for West Yorkshire.

Then in June we get to see the Zaha Hadid-designed Riverside Museum, also known as the Glasgow Guggenheim because of its fabulous and eccentric design. And later that month MShed opens in Bristol, the new Museum of Bristol project telling the story of the city. I did some work with the museum team at Bristol on the project just over a year ago, helping them with the early stages of text-writing for the new museum.

July sees the opening of the new Museum of Liverpool – again an extravagant and striking architectural design right in the middle of the city. And later in the summer we’ll see the results of the redevelopment of Taunton Castle into the Museum of Somerset.

So hold on to your hats for a rollercoaster of a summer of venue openings – and let me know if you get an invite to any of the opening parties and need a date!

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Multimedia guide to Petworth House

In Museums, new content on May 13, 2011 at 1:28 pm

My latest app is now live in the iTunes app store. It’s a multimedia guide to Petworth House in West Sussex for iPhone and iPod Touch.

It was great fun to make – we visited a few times over the winter months to interview members of staff there and take still shots. We made another visit in the Spring with our presenter, Rob Curtis, to film the interior and exterior shots and footage of him interviewing the National Trust staff who work there.

The guide takes visitors around the house, moving from room to room. Rob welcomes you into a room, gives you a quick overview of what’s important or interesting and then leaves you to browse a few options which we’ve placed on the screen for you. So you can go at your own pace and take as much or as little in as you like.

The guide is £3.50 if you turn up at Petworth House – they’ll loan you a handset for the day. Or, if you’re a die-hard National Trust fan, you can even download it from iTunes for £2.99 and save yourself 51p. Plus you get to keep it afterwards too!

I worked on the guide with the lovely people at ATS Heritage, who I’ve written guides for before at the Ashmolean, Lambeth Palace Library and even a guide to a Stannah Stairlift factory.

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